Improvement in the manufacture of gunpowder



NG. 120,862.. l v Pateied Nov."14',1871.

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Mmmm: @maturi PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES WILLIAM CURTIS, OF LONDON, ENGLAND.

IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF GUNPOWDER.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No.l 120,862, datedNovember 14, 1871.

To all whom t may concern:

Beit known that I, CHARLES WILLIAM CUR- TIS, of London, in England, haveinvented a new and useful Improvement in Gunpowder for use in HeavyOrdnance, and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear,and exact deA scription thereof, which will enable others skilled in theart to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanyingdrawing forming a part of this specification.

My invention relates to the manufacture of gunpowder used in heavyordnance, and known as pellet powder, which is usually made bycompressing meal powder in molds, whereby it is formed into pellets ofcylindrical form; and my improvement consists in splitting such pelletslongitudinally' into halves, forming grains of semi-cylindrical form,the result attained in use being a higher velocity of the projectilewithout increasing' the strain on the gun.

I take unglazed pellet-powder, or powder compressed into short cylindersor pellets, the manufacture of which is completed with the exception ofthe glazing and stoving processes, and I subject each pellet to theaction of a knife or other instrument, operated by hand or otherwise,whereby the pellet is fractured or split in a longitudinal direction.The split pellets are afterward glazed and stoved in theordinary'manner, which completes the process of manufacture.

Figure 1 represents a pellet of cylindrical form; Fig. 2, a pellet afterit has been split, showing a rough or fractured surface.

Similar letters of reference indicate correspondin g parts.

The pellets, when whole, instead of being cylindrical, as shown in Fig.1, may be of other form, cubes or parallelopipedes, for instance, according to the shape of the molds in which the meal-ponder iscompressed, and the shape of the pellets when split willbe variedaccordingly, instead of being semiTcylindrical as in Fig. 2. In anycase, each split pellet has one roughened or fractured surface, as abovementioned. The compression of the powder into pellets may be effected bythe aid of any suitable machinery, as my present invention does notconsist in themachinery for molding the powder, or in any particularconstruction of knife or other sharp or pointed instrument or machinefor splitting the pellets, as any suitable instrument or machine may beemployed for that purpose.

Havin g thus described myinvention, I claim as new and desire to secureby Letters Patent- The improvement in the process of manufacturinggunpowder for use in heavy ordnance,

such as the so-called pellet7 powder, the saidimprovement consisting insplitting each grain or pellet into halves, which are afterward stovedand glazed, as described.

The above specification of my invention signed by me this 18th day ofAugust, 1871.

CHARLES WILLIAM CURTIS.

74 Lombard St., 7London. (7l)

